Lookalikes

Hawthorn or pear?

Both are hedge trees covered in white flowers in spring.

The quickest check

The quickest check is the outline of a leaf. Hawthorn: toothed lobes reaching at least halfway in. Pear: round to oblong, with tiny rounded teeth. No leaves on the tree? Check the thorns on a bare shoot.

At a glance

Look at	Hawthorn	Pear
Outline of a leaf	Toothed lobes reaching at least halfway in	Round to oblong, with tiny rounded teeth
Thorns on a bare shoot	Many sharp thorns, a bud beside each	Stubby spurs, a spine only now and then
Fruit in the hand	A small red haw, about 10 mm	Pear-shaped, ripening golden yellow

Three ways to tell them apart

Outline of a leafLeaves

Hawthorn: outline of a leaf — HawthornToothed lobes reaching at least halfway in

Pear: outline of a leaf — PearRound to oblong, with tiny rounded teeth

Thorns on a bare shootTwigs and buds

HawthornMany sharp thorns, a bud beside each

PearStubby spurs, a spine only now and then

Fruit in the handHaws

Hawthorn: fruit in the hand — HawthornA small red haw, about 10 mm

Pear: fruit in the hand — PearPear-shaped, ripening golden yellow

Think you can tell them apart now? Try the tree quiz: real photographs, and what gives each tree away.Take the quiz

The two trees

Hawthorn

Crataegus monogyna

Hawthorn is a dense, thorny shrub or small tree with little, deeply lobed leaves. It is white with blossom from early May and red with haws in autumn.

How to identify hawthorn →

Pear

Pyrus communis

Pear grows into an upright, slender tree with dark bark cracked into small knobbly blocks. In April, clusters of white blossom cover the crown.

Their other lookalikes

Hawthorn or apple?Quickest check: the outline

Hawthorn or blackthorn?Quickest check: the flowers and leaves, and when

Hawthorn or common whitebeam?Quickest check: the outline

Hawthorn or crab apple?Quickest check: the outline of a leaf

Hawthorn or field maple?Quickest check: the bare shoot

Hawthorn or Midland hawthorn?Quickest check: the depth of the lobes

Hawthorn or rowan?Quickest check: the whole leaf

Pear or apple?Quickest check: the flower colour, and when

Pear or crab apple?Quickest check: the flower colour, and when

In the app

See them side by side in Treely

Both trees, part by partLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed through the year
Every lookalike side by sideThe checks that settle it, for every pair people mix up
A short round each dayUntil you can tell them apart at a glance
The full GuideBoth trees written up in full, with where to find them

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Free to download.

Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.

Photographs: Leon Cross (CC BY 4.0), steve_mcwilliam (CC0), Henry Miller (CC BY 4.0), bobwardell (CC0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.